There is a bright spot in the wine business, and it is largely unsung by many industry members. While alcohol consumption dips to record lows—only 54 percent of adult Americans drink, down from 67 percent in 2022, according to a recent Gallup poll—flavored wine sales are growing.
Infused with almond, watermelon, mango, Calabrian chilli, and other extracts, flavored wines have bold, spicy, and tropical notes that don’t require any swirling and sniffing to identify. Many are effervescent and typically have between 5% and 7% ABV. Those on the lower end technically fall below the TTB’s definition of wine, but their easy-drinking characters coincide with consumer trends toward low- and no-alcohol beverages.
Historically, however, many classically trained drinks professionals dismiss flavored bottlings as unserious or anathema to real wine. “So many of us in the industry have been taught to appreciate fine wine, and it’s all about selling that bottle of DRC or Château Margaux,” says Timothy Buzinski, the assistant professor at the Culinary Institute of America and co-proprietor of Artisan Wine Shop in Beacon, New York. “It’s unfortunate because there are definitely groups of people, including a lot of younger folks, who are interested in exploring [flavored wine].”
As the industry faces historic headwinds, the popularity and potential of flavored sparkling wines deserve a closer look. SevenFifty Daily spoke with retailers, analysts, and producers to explore the factors behind these wines’ downturn-defying success—and what the rest of the industry can learn from it.
Understanding flavored wine
While certain traditional wines might present tropical fruit aromas or spicy black pepper notes on their palates, flavored wines get their distinctive characteristics via manually added distillates. “They are made using traditional winemaking methods,” says Jen Wall, the winemaker at Barefoot Wine. Wine grapes are picked at “peak ripeness,” she explains. “In the winery, the grapes pressed and juice inoculated. The fermentation is arrested to ensure and preserve intense aromas and flavors.”
For sparkling iterations, some winemakers blend in the extract toward the end of Charmat fermentation. Others inoculate and ferment their juice, add flavored distillates, and then mix in sparkling water “to ensure a more moderate alcohol level for better sessionability,” says Wall.
Introduced in 2018, Barefoot’s fizzy and flavorful Fruitscato line is among the more prominent labels in the space. The company created it “to provide more welcoming options to the wine category and to folks who are new to wine,” Wall says. Another major player is Stella Rosa, the family-owned California label whose pineapple-and-chili-flavored semi-sweet sparkler was the top-selling new wine SKU in the United States in 2023. Other flavored wine brands include Arbor Mist, Dragon Fire, and XXL.
Flavored wines are packaged and marketed similarly to ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails. “You can make your own at-home cocktail with just the wine over ice,” suggests Steve Riboli, the CEO and president of Riboli Family Winery, the parent company of Stella Rosa. Rarely included on bar or restaurant wine lists, bottlings tend to be shelved near bottled sangrias or RTDs in retail stores, and their labels highlight flavors like peach or watermelon rather than grape varieties.
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